Audie Cornish

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Audie Cornish is host of All Things Considered, along with Robert Siegel, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers.

Previously, she served as host of Weekend Edition Sunday. Prior to moving into that host position in the fall of 2011, Cornish reported from Capitol Hill for NPR News, covering issues and power in both the House and Senate and specializing in financial industry policy. She was part of NPR's six-person reporting team during the 2008 presidential election, and had a featured role in coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Cornish comes to Washington, D.C., from Nashville, where she covered the South for NPR, including many the Gulf states left reeling by the 2005 hurricane season. She has also covered the aftermath of other disasters, including the deaths of several miners in West Virginia in 2006, as well as the tornadoes that struck Tennessee in 2006 and Alabama in 2007.

Before coming to NPR, Cornish was a reporter for Boston's award-winning public radio station WBUR. There she covered some of the region's major news stories, including the legalization of same sex marriage, the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese, as well as Boston's hosting of the Democratic National Convention. Cornish also reported for WBUR's syndicated programming including On Point, distributed by NPR, and Here and Now.

In 2005, Cornish shared in a first prize in the National Awards for Education Writing for "Reading, Writing, and Race," a study of the achievement gap. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Cornish has served as a reporter for the Associated Press in Boston. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

If you've been watching the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on TV, you've probably seen it happen a few times already: Every few minutes, a fresh wave of brightly colored signs — bearing campaign slogans like "Stronger Together" or "Love Trumps Hate" — spreads across the convention floor like wildfire. Shelly Loos is in charge of floor operations for the DNC. And it's her job to oversee the timing and distribution of the 300,000 to 400,000 signs at the convention, and the some...

Across the U.S., more than 20 million people abuse drugs or alcohol or both. Only about 1 in 10 is getting treatment . People seeking treatment often have to wait weeks or months for help. The delays can jeopardize the chances they'll be able to recover from their addiction. In Baltimore, Health Commissioner Leana Wen has been pushing for treatment on demand, so that the moment people decide they're ready for help, it's available. It's something other health officials have sought to achieve,...

If you took a map of Chicago and put down a tack for each person shot last year, you'd need nearly 3,000 tacks. Of those, 101 would be clustered in the neighborhood of East Garfield Park. That's where 15-year-old Jim Courtney-Clarks lives. "To be honest, I really don't like it," Courtney-Clarks says. "Every time you look up somebody else is getting killed, and I never know if it's me or somebody I am really close to." For kids in some Chicago neighborhoods, walking up and down the same street...

The protests in Chicago have been mostly peaceful. But it's not just about police. This is all happening against a backdrop of gang violence, including the recent killing of a 9-year-old boy who police say was apparently targeted because of his father's alleged gang ties. These incidents are forcing difficult conversations between parents and kids. And for African-American families, the conversation hits close to home. How do you talk about what's happening? How do you reassure your kids? And...

Every Thursday night you can find Nathan Fields making the rounds of Baltimore's red light district, known to locals as The Block. An outreach worker with the Baltimore City Health Department, Fields, 55, is a welcome sight outside strip clubs like Circus, Club Harem and Jewel Box. In the early evening before the clubs get busy, he talks with dancers, bouncers and anyone else passing by about preventing drug overdoses and how to stop the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases....

A suspected case of measles. A rabid fox on the loose. A recall of a dye used in tattoos. A drug epidemic that's claiming hundreds of lives. Those are just a few of the problems that Dr. Leana Wen confronts in a typical week as the Baltimore City Health Commissioner. While they all have to be dealt with, it's clear that heroin is among Wen's gravest concerns. Right now, she's focused on stopping overdoses and saving lives. There were 104 overdose deaths in Baltimore during the first quarter...

In today's crowded TV landscape, the casting director's job is no small thing. And that talent will be honored at the Emmy Awards next month. Jennifer Euston, who has been in the casting business for two decades, has been nominated this year for outstanding casting for a comedy series and for a drama series. "I get the script, I read it, I break it down. Anyone who has a speaking part is my responsibility," she says. "Even if the person says, 'Hi' — one word." Euston's first gig was on Law...

On a hot, sunny Monday in mid-July, Dr. Leana Wen stood on a sidewalk in West Baltimore flanked by city leaders: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, interim police commissioner Kevin Davis, Rep. Elijah Cummings. Under a huge billboard with the web address dontdie.org, she proudly unveiled a 10-point plan for tackling the city's heroin epidemic. Wen, the city's health commissioner, said she aims to create a 24/7 treatment center, an emergency room of sorts for substance abuse and mental health....

Neighborhoods in Baltimore are still struggling to recover from the riots that broke out following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal injury to his spine while in police custody. In the aftermath of the unrest, we here at NPR spent many hours trying to understand the raw anger on display. We looked at police brutality, economic disparities and housing segregation in Baltimore. Our conversations eventually led us to Leana Wen. Wen, a 32-year old emergency physician, had become...